Military-educated Captain J. R. Holman spent time in Honduras, where he learned Spanish. Based on an 1898 letter of recommendation to Texas Governor Charles A. Culberson, he entered the Fourth Texas Volunteer Infantry and served as commanding officer of Company M during the Spanish American War.

A letter and petition compose the J. R. Holman Papers, 1898, documenting Holman’s military commission as Captain of Company M of the Fourth Texas Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War. The letter to Texas Governor Charles A. Culberson endorses Holman for volunteer service and includes a handwritten recommendation from Culberson. The petition from Holman’s 29 men at Camp Mosby, Texas, asks Colonel J. C. Edmonds to assign William A. Hassel, Jr. quartermaster of the company and includes a note from Edmonds approving the request.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.